A Cake Named Content
I was typing a really long draft post with a lot of questions and introspective comments, bordering on the existential. Then, I was going to connect how the current state of the food blogging world is representative of the chaotically complex we all seem to be leading. You know, it was going to a be an intense and verbose way of linking to why my cake today is.
Then, I realized, that this whole existentialism of the food blogging world was something that I want to write about separately. And, the point of this cake is the elegance of simple and I would complete shatter that with the verbosity of my expostulations.
Savory Pumpkin Pie
My interest is still towards creating a more sustainable ecosystem. What I am working on now is a collaborative approach the goal of which education, awareness and independent choices. I hope to deliver this through an several biased, multi-perspective platform that creates room for discussion and debate leading to a collectively better understanding of all issues.
I am still clarifying the concept and in the middle of putting together the infrastructure and framework for the online platform. But, if any of you is interested in getting involved, please drop me a note and I would love to collaborate.
That's really what is on my mind. So, I am going dive right into the photos and leave you with the recipe for this simple vegetarian pie that surprises you in flavor and more-ness. The secret is the contrast of the crunch of the pastry and succulence of the filling.
Southern Comfort for Strength
My absolute winter favorite is collard greens. I love eating them for their flavor but I love them even more for the irony that I associate with it. You see, for me, collard green is a distinctive Southern comfort. I don't get it often because I want to perpetuate the myth of its luxury that I have created for myself. When I do, I inevitably slow cook it, overall hours, or even days, drawing out the flavors into the dish and building up the anticipation of that climactic first taste.
This dish here I cooked for 24 hours. No, that is not an exaggeration. My sincere gratitude to whoever invented the slow cooker. It is a cook's best companion any time of the year, but, particularly in winter. It is cheap, energy efficient and versatile. And, it is perfect for cooking collard greens. Your southern mama may not approve of this new fangled device but give her a taste of this Ham Hock Cured Collard Greens and I'll bet she will be wanting one of them cookers herself!
Read more and find out the story of this dish.
Gluten Free Carrot Cake-Do(ugh)-Nuts + Blood Orange Cream Frosting
Carrot cake is quite popular in my house. Consequently, several variations of it feature on this blog as well like frosted layered cakes to mini cakes to cup cakes and more. But, none of them have been gluten free, well, because I did not need to. I need to now.
So, recently, when the desire to have carrot cake set in again, it was the perfect opportunity to test how the recipe work when the chemistry of flour ingredients are changed on their head. Fortunately, I struck gold with the first recipe I tried and it was also the one that had worked best for regular flour and has been particularly popular with readers.
In this post, I catalog some of the factors that I work with when transforming recipes with regular flour to gluten free creations in my kitchen. In this recipe, I used a blend of oat and almond flours, which, I think works wonders for sweet stuff.
Continue reading to find out why and get the recipe for these adorable cake-do-nuts!
Cauliflower Fried Rice
No, this is not another recipe for the new trend of crushing cauliflower to make rice because of Paleo or some grain free diet. This is really rice with cauliflower.
This idea was borne out of a nagging conscience. I am as you know deeply involved in making conscious eating choices. After all that is the entire premise of NOURISHED and FOODLY. However, I am not a saint. I do waste food and throw away leftovers sometimes because they have been languishing at the back of the fridge for far too long and because I had a new idea for a recipe that required a completely different set of ingredients. Yes, I am not perfect.
Nevertheless, in a effort to govern myself, I decided that I would not let anything go to waste, ok, really, atleast reduce my waste by half. I would make something with the leftovers and what else was available in my pantry and fridge....